AT   LOS  ANGELES 


"MUCK-RAKERS  OF  OTHER  DAYS" 


SPEECH  OF 

HON.  JULIUS  KAHN 


OF  CALIFORNIA 


IN  THE 


HOUSE  OF  KEPKESENTATIYES 


SATURDAY,  MARCH  26,  1910 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1910 


35352—8875 


SPEECH 

OF 

ON.   JULIUS  KAHN 


The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  House  on  the  state  of  the  Union  and 
having  under  consideration  the  bill  (H.  R.  23311)  making  appropriations  for  the  naval 
service  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1911,  and  for  other  purposes — 

Mr.  KAHN  said : 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN  :  Availing  myself  of  the  latitude  allowed  under  the  rules  of 
the  House  in  general  debate  when  the  House  is  in  Committee  of  the  Whole 
House  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  I  desire  at  this  time  to  address  myself  to  the 
subject  of  "  Muck-rakers  of  other  days."  On  the  14th  of  April,  1906,  upon  the 
occasion  of  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  of  the  new  Office  Building  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  President  Roosevelt  said: 

In  Pilgrim's  Progress  the  man  with  the  muck-rake  is  set  forth  as  the  example  of  him 
whose  vision  is  fixed  on  carnal  instead  of  on  spiritual  things.  Yet  he  also  typifies  the 
man  who,  in  .this  life,  consistently  refuses  to  see  aught  that  is  lofty  and  fixes  his  eyes 
with  solemn  intentness  only  on  that  which  is  vile  and  debasing.  Now,  it  is  very  neces- 
sary that  we  should  not  flinch  from  seeing  what  is  vile  and  debasing.  There  is  filth  on 
the  floor,  and  it  must  be  scraped  up  with  a  muck-rake ;  and  there  are  times  and  places 
where  this  service  is  the  most  needed  of  all  the  services  that  can  be  performed.  But  the 
man  who  never  docs  anything  else,  who  never  thinks  or  speaks  or  writes  save  of  his  feats 
with  a  muck-rake,  speedily  becomes,  not  a  help  to  society,  not  an  incitement  to  good,  but 
one  of  the  most  potent  forces  for  evil  *  *  *  The  liar  is  no  whit  better  than  the 
thief,  and  if  his  mendacity  takes  the  form  of  slander,  he  may  be  worse  than  most  thieves. 
It  puts  a  premium  on  knavery  untruthfully  to  attack  an  honest  man,  or  even  with 
hysterical  exaggeration  to  assail  a  bad  man  with  untruth.  An  epidemic  of  criminal 
assault  upon  character  does  not  good,  but  very  great  harm.  The  soul  of  every  scoundrel 
is  gladdened  whenever  an  honest  man  is  assailed,  or  even  when  a  scoundrel  is  untruthfully 
assailed. 

After  that  vigorous  protest  against  indiscriminate  attacks  upon  public  officials. 
BO  far  as  some  of  the  newspapers  and  magazines  were  concerned,  it  was  hoped 
that  a  more  moderate  tone — a  tone  rather  of  criticism  than  abuse — would  mark 
the  course  of  these  periodicals.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  attacks  still  continue — 
possibly  a  little  more  virulent,  if  anything.  Fortunately,  the  large  majority  of 
the  newspapers  and  magazines  of  this  country  do  not  attempt  to  diverge  from 
the  path  of  fair,  decent  criticism.  And  I  firmly  believe  that  every  honest  man 
in  public  life  welcomes  that  kind  of  criticism. 

But  there  is  another  class  of  newspapers  and  magazines  that  descend  to 
vituperation  and  abuse  upon  the  merest  pretext.  Possibly  it  is  done  to  swell  the 
subscription  list,  for  it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  the  circulation  of  the  Rich- 
mond Recorder  increased  enormously  when  its  editor,  Callender,  began  his  on- 
slaughts on  Thomas  Jefferson.  But  at  any  rate  these  publications  all  too  fre- 
quently impugn  the  motives  and  malign  the  character  of  the  object  of  their 
attacks;  they  even  endeavor  to  point  the  finger  of  suspicion  against  the  probity 
and  integrity  of  that  particular  official  that  has  fallen  under  their  displeasure. 
So  frequently  have  attacks  of  this  character  challenged  my  attention  during  the 
past  year  that  I  began  to  wonder  whether  the  early  Presidents,  whose  names 
Lave  come  down  to  us  as  the  very  embodiment  of  the  highest  type  of  American 
patriotism  and  official  integrity,  were  also  the  subject  of  such  fierce  villification 
and  abuse  in  the  periodicals  published  in  their  particular  day  and  generation. 
I  had  not  proceeded  far  in  my  investigation  ere  I  found  that  they,  too,  had  been 
the  victims  of  muck-rakers.  But  knowing  how  their  memory  is  revered  by  the 
great  majority  of  our  countrymen,  I  became  convinced  that  these  attacks  usually 
have  little  effect  upon  posterity. 

They  are  soon  forgotten,  and  the  men  whose  characters  are  assailed  invari- 
ably stand  out  as  shining  examples  in  their  country's  history — shining  examples 
lor  the  youth  of  the  laud  to  follow  arid  emulate.  I  am  reminded  of  a  little  iiici- 

35352—8875  3 


418549 


dent  that  occurred  In  the  city  of  Sacramento  In  1895  during  a  session  of  the 
California  legislature.  Maj.  Frank  McLaughlin,  a  well-known  citizen  of  our 
State,  was  at  the  capital  attending  to  some  matters  pending  before  the  legisla- 
ture. One  morning  there  appeared  in  one  of  the  San  Francisco  newspapers  an 
article  which  reiloctod  somewhat  upon  the  good  name  and  character  of  an  esti- 
mable citizen  of  Oakland,  Cal.,  wherein  it  was  charged  that  he  was  gathering 
a  corruption  fund  in  order  that  he  might  be  able  to  go  to  the  capitol  and 
defeat  certain  bills  that  were  then  being  considered  by  the  committees  of  the 
legislature.  Indignant  at  the  attack,  this  citizen  wired  to  Major  McLaughlin, 
as  follows : 

Brand  the  article  in  this  morning's  paper  false  as  hell !  Such  tactics  will  act  as  a 
boomerang.  I  ain  coming  up  this  evening. 

Whereupon  Major  McLaughlin  promptly  wired  back : 

I  have  looked  all  over  Sacramento,  but  I  can  not  find  a  "  false  as  hell  "  branding  Iron. 
I  would  like  to  help  you  propel  the  boomerang,  but  I  do  not  know  just  in  which  direction 
to  throw  it.  Keep  frapp6,  old  man  1  To-day's  newspapers  are  lost  in  starting  to-morrow'S 
fires. 

[Applause.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  my  investigation  has  led  me  to  recognize  the  profound  phil- 
osophy concealed  in  that  last  sentence.  I  soon  found  that  during  the  first 
administration  of  President  Washington  he  had  been  the  subject  of  more  or 
less  attack  in  the  pamphlets  and  newspapers  of  that  epoch.  But  it  was  during 
his  second  administration  that  the  muckrakers  of  that  era  came  out  in  the  open 
and  made  him  the  target  of  bitter  invective  and  vituperation  such  as  has  seldom 
been  equaled  hi  the  annals  of  our  country. 

As  every  student  of  history  will  recall,  after  the  outbreak  of  the  French 
Revolution  there  arose  two  powerful  factions  in  the  United  States.  One  of 
these,  under  the  leadership  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  his  followers,  strongly 
espoused  the  cause  of  France,  especially  in  her  struggle  against  England  and 
Spain.  The  other,  under  the  leadership  of  President  Washington,  which  desired 
to  maintain  a  strict  neutrality,  was  accused  of  being  pro-English.  At  any  rate, 
feeling  ran  high,  and  it  was  openly  charged  that  the  French  party  was  trying 
to  embroil  this  country  in  a  war  with  Great  Britain.  Some  of  the  debates  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  grew  exceedingly  acrimonious,  and  on  the  occa- 
sion of  Washington's  birthday  in  1793  the  usual  resolution  to  adjourn  for  half 
an  hour  in  order  that  the  Congress  might  pay  its  respects  to  the  illustrious 
Chief  Executive  was,  for  the  first  time,  opposed,  although  the  motion  ultimately 
carried. 

Realizing  the  necessity  for  settling  the  differences  that  existed  between  thia 
country  and  England  through  diplomatic  channels.  Washington  appointed  John 
Jay,  then  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  to  the  posi- 
tion of  minister  plenipotentiary  and  envoy  extraordinary  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James,  and  the  Senate  promptly  confirmed  the  appointment.  It  was  then  that 
the  muckrakers  began  to  pour  out  all  their  vials  of  wrath  upon  the  head  of  the 
Father  of  his  Country.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  some  of  the  scribblers  of  that  era 
began  to  assail  him  by  calling  him  the  stepfather  of  his  country.  But  here 
are  a  few  samples  of  the  vaporiugs  of  the  writers  of  that  period : 

It  has  now  become  a  question  whether  Congress  is  necessary  or  of  any  utility  to  the 
country.  To  cast  a  retrospective  eye  at  the  present  session,  it  would  appear  as  if  the  $6 
a  day  were  more  an  object  of  calculation  than  the  interests  of  the  people  ;  to  take  a 
view  of  the  Executive's  conduct,  it  would  seem  as  if  he  considered  a  legislative  body  a 
dead  weight  upon  the  Government  and  was  resolved  to  obstruct  its  operations  by  diplo- 
matic appointments.  Perhaps  it  would  correspond  more  with  the  wishes  of  the  Executive 
and  bis  satellites  if  Congress  was  to  adjourn  sine  die  and  leave  all  to  them. 

******* 

The  President,  not  content  with  annihilating  the  people,  wished  also  to  annihilate 
the  obligations  of  a  treaty — the  price  of  our  liberties.  Faithless,  unprincipled,  and 
aristocratical  moderatist,  who  would  offer  up  the  liberties  of  thy  fellow-citizens  on  the 
altar  of  administration,  and  the  sacred  obligations  of  our  country,  though  perhaps  not 
thine,  on  the  altar  of  treachery  and  dishonor! 

*  ****** 

How  long  is  this  to  be  borne  with?  How  long  are  we  to  submit  to  the  exertions  of 
a  set  of  men  among  us  who  wish  to  prostrate  us  at  the  feet  of  Great  Britain  and  barter 
away  everything  freemen  hold  dear?  Is  there  not  one  propitious  gale  to  kindle  the 
embers  of  expiring  liberty  again  to  consume  its  conspirators?  Disguised  moderatists 
forbear  1  Freemen  are  stow  to  anger,  but  when  aroused  moderation  and  forbearance  may 
forsake  them. 

The  treaty  which  Mr.  Jay  negotiated  was  known  as  the  Jay-Grenvilla  treaty, 
or  the  British  treaty  of  1794,  it  having  been  signed  in  London  on  the  l^th  of 
85352—8875 


November  of  that  year.  The  first  copy  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  President 
Washington  on  the  evening  of  March  7,  1795.  Its  terms  seem  to  have  heeu 
made  public  surreptitiously  about  a  week  later,  and  forthwith  its  friends  and 
its  opponents  commenced  a  regular  tirade  of  abuse,  the  one  against  the  other. 
Soon  after  the  following  notice  was  printed  in  Richmond,  Yn. : 

RICHMOND,  July  St. 

Notice  Is  hereby  given  that  in  case  the  treaty  entered  Into  hy  that  damned  archtraitor, 
John  Jay,  with  the  British  tyrant  should  be  ratified  a  petition  will  he  presented  to  the 
next  general  assembly  of  Virginia,  at  their  next  session,  praying  that  the  said  State  may 
recede  from  the  Union  and  be  left  under  the  government  and  protection  of  100,000  free 
and  independent  Virginians. 

P.  S. — As  it  is  the  wish  of  the  people  of  the  said  State  to  enter  into  a  treaty  of  amity, 
commerce,  and  navigation  with  any  other  State  or  States  of  the  present  Union  who  are 
averse  to  returning  again  under  the  galling  yoke  of  Great  Britain,  the  printers  of  the 
United  States  are  requested  to  publish  the  above  notification. 

John  Jay  was  assailed  in  this  fashion : 

Hear  the  voice  of  truth,  hear  and  believe!  John  Jay,  ah!  the  archtraitor — seize  him, 
drown  him,  hang  him,  burn  him,  flay  him  alive!  Men  of  America,  he  betrayed  you  with 
a  kiss !  As  soon  as  he  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  England  he  kissed  the  Queen's  hand.  He 
kissed  the  Queen's  hand,  and  with  that  kiss  betrayed  away  th"  rights  of  man  and  the 
liberty  of  America. 

Mr.   SHERWOOD.     What  is  that  from? 

Mr.  KAHN.     That  is  from  one  of  the  newspapers  of  that  particular  period. 

Mr.  SHERWOOD.     You  do  not  know  which  one  it  was? 

Mr.  KAHN.  I  do  not.  But  I  will  say  to  niy  friend  that  this  extract  and  all 
the  others  which  I  shall  read  may  be  found  in  certain  histories,  biographies, 
memoirs,  and  pamphlets  which  I  found  in  the  Congressional  Library. 

But  when  it  became  known  that  the  President  had  signed  the  treaty,  there 
was  a  perfect  torrent  of  vindictive  abuse  that  flowed  from  the  pens  of  the  parti- 
san journalists  and  pamphleteers  of  that  day  and  generation.  The  Aurora,  one 
of  the  most  rabid  of  the  newspapers  of  that  period,  declared: 

The  President  has  violated  the  Constitution.  He  has  made  a  treaty  with  a  nation  that 
is  the  abhorrence  of  our  people.  He  has  treated  our  remonstrance's  with  pointed  con- 
tempt. Louis  XVI.  in  the  meridian  of  his  splendor  and  his  power,  never  dared  to  heap 
such  insults  upon  his  subjects.  The  answers  to  the  respectful  remonstrances  of  Boston 
and  Philadelphia  and  New  York  sound  like  the  omnipotent  director  of  a  seraglio. 
*  *  *  As  he  has  been  disrespectful  to  his  people,  let  him  no  longer  expect  them  to 
view  him  as  a  saint. 

One  writer,  who  signed  himself  "A  Calm  Observer."  in  publicly  accusing 
Washington  of  being  a  thief  for  having  drawn  from  the  Treasury  for  his"  private 
use  more  than  the  salary  annexed  to  his  office,  asked: 

What  will  posterity  say  of  the  man  who  has  done  this  thing?  Will  it  not  say  that  the 
mask  of  political  hypocrisy  has  been  worn  by  Caesar,  by  Cromwell,  aud  by  Washington 
alike  ? 

Another,  who  styled  himself  "  Pittachus,''  wrote : 

Happily  the  public  mind  is  rapidly  changing.  Hitherto  the  name  of  Washington  has 
been  fatal  to  the  popularity  of  every  man  against  whom  it  was  directed.  Now  it  is  as 
harmless  as  John  O'Nooke  or  Tarn  O'Stiles.  To  be  an  opposer  of  the  President  will  soon 
be  a  passport  to  popular  favor. 

One  who  assumed  the  nom  de  plume  of  Valerius  attacked  him  because — 

he  no  longer  indulges  in  the  manly  walk,  nor  rides  the  generous  steed  ;  he  no  longer  con- 
tinues such  exercise.  He  receives  visits  and  returns  none.  Are  these  republican  virtues? 
Do  they  command  our  esteem? — 

he  sententiously  demanded. 

From  this  time  on  till  his  retirement  from  the  Presidency  the  attacks  became 
more  and  more  vitriolic.  In  reviewing  these  tirades  against  our  first  President 
a  writer  of  a  little  later  period  said  that  his  antagonists — 

threw  aside  all  reserve  *  *  *  and  under  the  abused  name  of  the  liberty  of  the  press 
assaulted  his  fame  with  a  virulence  not  inferior  to  that  with  which  they  could  have  at- 
tacked the  meanest  defaulter.  His  military,  his  civil,  his  political,  his  private  domestic 
character  were  all  arraigned,  and  he  was  asserted  to  be  destitute  of  merit,  either  as  a 
man  or  as  a  soldier.  *  *  Having  once  made  the  charge  of  peculation  against  Wash- 

ington, the  imposters  stood  their  ground  and  undertook  to  support  it  by  extracts  said  to 
be  taken  from  the  Treasury  accounts.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  testified  that  the 
appropriations  made  by  the  legislature  had  never  been  exceeded.  Still  the  charge  was 
repeated  with  an  effrontery  which  passed  with  some  for  the  firmness  of  conscious  rectitude. 

To  endeavor  to  prove  that  the  writer  of  those  lines  did  not  overstep  the 
bounds  of  truth  when  he  characterized  the  attacks  on  President  Washington  in 
such  forceful  language,  I  will,  as  I  proceed,  quote  a  few  extracts  from  the  news- 
35352—8875 


papers  and  pamphlets  that  were  issued  toward  the  closing  days  of  his  adminis- 
tration.   The  Aurora,  of  March  23,  1796,  printed  this : 

If  ever  a  nation  was  debauched  by  a  man,  the  American  Nation  has  been  debauched 
by  Washington.  If  ever  a  nation  has  been  deceived  by  a  man,  the  American  Nation  has 
been  deceived  l>y  Washington.  Let  his  conduct,  then,  be  an  example  to  future  avos  ;  let 
it  serve  to  he  a  warning  that  no  man  may  be  an  idol  ;  let  the  history  of  the  Federal 
Government  instruct  mankind  that  the  mask  of  patriotism  may  be  worn  to  conceal  the 
foulest  designs  airalnst  the  liberty  of  the  people. 

What  wifl  posterity  say  of  the  man  who  has  done  this  thing?  Will  It  not  say  that  the 
mask  of  political  hypocrisy  has  been  worn  by  Caesar,  by  Cromwell,  and  by  Washington, 
alike? 

It  seems  almost  incredible  that  in  the  days  of  President  Washington  such 
language  could  have  been  printed  in  any  newspaper  in  this  fair  land.  [Ap- 
plause.] But  the  President  resented  this  kind  of  attack.  How  could  he  do 
otherwise?  How  could  any  man,  who  had  at  heart  the  love  of  his  country  that 
our  first  great  President  had,  do  otherwise?  How  could  any  man  of  his 
patriotic  nature  have  remained  silent  under  such  abuse?  And  so  he  wrote  a 
letter  to  his  friend,  Governor  Lee,  of  Virginia,  and  I  commend  to  this  commit- 
tee the  language  of  that  letter,  for  it  well  may  be  taken  as  an  excellent  model 
of  remonstrance  against  the  vile  attacks  that  are  being  made  upon  public  men 
in  our  own  day.  The  President  said : 

That  there  are  in  this,  as  in  all  other  countries,  discontented  characters  I  well  know, 
as  also  that  these  characters  are  actuated  by  very  different  views.  Some  good,  from  the 
opinion  that  the  measures  of  the  General  Government  are  impure;  some  bad  and  (if  I 
might  be  allowed  to  use  so  harsh  an  expression)  diabolical,  inasmuch  as  they  are  not 
only  meant  to  impede  the  measures  of  government  generally,  but  more  especially  to  de- 
stroy the  confidence  which  it  is  necessary  the  people  should  place  (until  they  have  un- 
equivocal proof  of  demerit)  in  their  servants,  for  in  this  light  I  consider  myself  whilst  I 
am  an  occupant  of  office  ;  and  if  they  were  to  go  further  and  call  me  their  slave  during 
this  period  I  would  not  dispute  the  point  with  them.  But  in  what  will  this  abuse  ter- 
minate? 

For  the  result,  as  it  respects  myself,  I  care  not.  I  have  a  consolation  within  me  of 
Which  no  earthly  efforts  can  deprive  me,  and  that  is  that  neither  ambition  nor  interested 
motives  have  influenced  my  conduct.  The  arrows  of  malevolence,  however  barbed  and 
pointed,  can  never  reach  my  most  valuable  part ;  though,  whilst  I  am  up  as  a  mark,  they 
will  be  continually  aimed  at  me.  The  publications  in  Freneau's  and  Bache's  papers  are 
outrages  on  common  decency,  and  they  progress  in  that  style  in  proportion  as  their  pieces 
are  treated  with  contempt  and  passed  over  in  silence  by  those  against  whom  they  are 
directed.  Their  tendency,  however,  is  too  obvious  to  be  mistaken  by  men  of  cool  and  dis- 
passionate minds  and,  in  my  opinion,  ought  to  alarm  them,  because  it  is  difficult  to  pre- 
scribe bounds  to  their  effect. 

Every  American  is  proud  of  this  city  of  Washington,  with  Its  superb  Capitol 
and  its  modest  but  architecturally  beautiful  White  House.  The  construction  of 
these  buildings  was  authorized  and  commenced  during  the  administration  of 
President  Washington.  Hark,  now,  to  this  extract  from  one  of  the  publications 
of  that  period : 

Ninety-seven  thousand  dollars  have  gone  into  the  President's  house  and  as  much  more 
Is  wanted.  Eighty  thousand  dollars  spent  upon  the  Capitol  and  the  building  scarcely 
above  the  foundation  walls.  [Laughter.]  And  this  wastefulness  is  encouraged  by  a 
Government  that  can  not  raise  money  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  debts  it  is  each  year 
contracting. 

Has  not  that  a  familiar  ring  to  it?  But  who,  to-day,  begrudges  a  single  dollar 
that  was  expended  upon  either  building? 

Some  of  the  charges  of  theft  were  summed  up  In  this  fashion : 

General  Washington  went  to  the  Treasury— some  future  President  may  go  to  the  bank—* 
the  one  step  will  not  be  a  jot  worse  than  the  other. 

******* 

If  truth  or  reason  or  the  public  debt  had  been  at  all  consulted  the  House  would  have 
begun  by  asking  the  Executive  why  he  took  from  the  Treasury  $1,100,000  without  their 
leave  and  in  contempt  of  the  Constitution. 

The  fact  that  Washington,  as  a  general  rule,  treated  these  calumnies  with  dis- 
dainful silence  was  construed  by  his  enemies  as  a  confession  of  their  truth.  But 
that  the  attacks  sank  deep  and  embittered  the  life  of  our  first  Chief  Executive 
is  evidenced  by  this  extract  from  a  letter  written  to  Thomas  Jefferson  : 

To  this  I  may  add,  and  very  truly,  that  until  the  last  year  or  two  I  had  no  concep- 
tion that  parties  would,  or  even  could,  go  to  the  lengths  I  have  been  witness  to ;  nor  did 
I  believe  until  lately  it  was  within  the  bounds  of  probability — hardly  within  those  of 
possibility — that  while  I  wag  using  my  utmost  exertions  to  establish  a  national  character 
of  pur  own,  independent,  as  far  as  our  obligations  and  justice  would  permit,  of  every 
nation  of  the  earth,  and  wished,  by  steering  a  steady  course,  to  preserve  this  country  from 
the  horrors  of  a  desolating  war,  I  should  be  accused  of  being  the  enemy  of  our  Nation  and 
subject  to  the  influence  of  another,  and  to  prove  it  that  every  act  of  my  administration 
would  be  tortured  and  the  grossest  and  most  insidious  misrepresentations  of  them  be 
35352—8875 


made  by  giving  one  side  only  of  a  subject,  and  that,  too,  In  xven  exaggerated  and  indecent 
terms  (is  could  scarcely  be  applied  to  a  A'ero,  to  a  notorious  defaulter,  or  even  to  a  com- 
mon pickpocket. 

In  the  letter  to  Governor  Lee  and  also  in  the  letter  to  Jefferson,  of  which  the 
foregoing  i§  but  an  extract,  Washington  referred  to  a  notorious  muck-raker  of 
that  day  whose  name  was  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache.  He  was  a  grandson  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  had  political  aspirations,  but  failed  to  receive  a  coveted 
appointment  from  the  President.  He  forthwith  became  a  sorehead,  and  in  sea- 
son as  well  as  out  of  season  this  blackguard  hurled  his  miserable  abuse  at  the 
then  Executive.  As  early  as  1777  a  cabal  had  been  organized  against  General 
Washington  when  he  was  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Continental  Army.  In 
order  to  destroy  his  influence  in  that  army  and  to  poison  the  public  mind,  a 
number  of  forged  letters  were  cunningly  devised,  so  as  to  arouse  a  suspicion 
of  his  fidelity  to  the  American  cause.  They  were  intended  to  convey  the  im- 
pression that  he  was  attached  to  the  cause  of  England. 

In  order  to  spread  a  belief  in  such  an  act  of  treachery,  the  conspirators  cir- 
culated a  story  that  these  letters  had  been  captured  from  Washington's  mulatto 
boy  near  Fort  Lee.  They  were  shown  to  be  rank  forgeries  at  the  time  the 
story  was  first  circulated,  but  this  muck-raker  Bache  now  reprinted  them  as 
being  absolutely  genuine.  I  doubt  whether  we  can  find  anywhere  a  more  nefari- 
ous instance  of  bitter,  vindictive  partisanship.  Other  opponents  of  Washing- 
ton reprinted  the  story,  and  it  spread  so  rapidly  and  was  repeated  so  persist- 
ently that  at  the  very  end  of  his  administration,  on  the  day  of  his  retirement 
from  the  Presidency,  Washington  felt  compelled  to  write  a  denial  of  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  forged  letters,  and  requested  that  this  denial  be  placed  among 
the  archives  of  the  Department  of  State,  in  order  that  future  generations 
might  not  be  deceived  by  the  wicked  designs  of  his  enemies.  It  is  but  proper 
that  I  quote  a  portion  of  that  statement  at  this  time: 

At  the  time  when  these  letters  first  appeared  it  was  notorious  to  the  army  immediately 
under  my  command,  and  particularly  to  the  gentlemen  attached  to  my  person,  that  my 
mulatto  man,  Billy,  had  never  been  one  moment  in  the  power  of  the  enemy.  It  is  also  a 
fact  that  no  part  of  my  baggage  or  any  of  my  attendants  were  captured  during  the 
whole  course  of  the  war.  These  well-known  facts  made  it  unnecessary  during  the  war 
to  call  the  public  attention  to  the  forgery  by  any  express  declaration  of  mine,  and  a 
firm  reliance  on  my  fellow-citizens,  and  the  abundant  proofs  they  gave  me  of  their  con- 
fidence in  me,  rendered  it  alike  unnecessary  to  take  any  formal  notice  of  the  revival  of 
the  imposition  during  my  civil  administration.  But  as  I  can  not  know  how  soon  a  more 
serious  event  (referring,  of  course,  to  the  probability  of  his  early  death)  may  succeed  to 
that  which  will  this  day  take  place,  I  have  thought  it  a  duty  that  I  owed  to  myself,  to 
my  country,  and  to  truth,  now  to  detail  the  circumstances  above  recited,  and  to  "add  my 
solemn  declaration  that  the  letters  herein  described  are  a  base  forgery,  and  that  I  never 
saw  or  heard  of  them  till  they  appeared  in  print.  The  present  letter  I  commit  to  your 
care  and  desire  it  may  be  deposited  in  the  office  of  the  Department  of  State  as  a  testi- 
mony of  the  truth  to  the  present  generation  and  to  posterity. 

It  almost  passes  belief  that  George  Washington,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  should  have  felt  himself  constrained  to  place  among  the  public  records 
of  his  country,  in  order  that  future  muck-rakers  might  not  revive  the  stories, 
this  effective  denial  of  the  truth  of  assertions  contained  in  the  papers  of  his 
day  and  generation.  [Applause.] 

And,  oh!  what  a  psean-  of  rejoicing  arose  from  these  muck-rakers  when  our 
first  President  relinquished  the  reins  of  government.  Listen  to  this  from  the 
Aurora : 

"  Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy 
salvation, "  was  the  pious  ejaculation  of  a  man  who  beheld  a  flood  of'  happiness  rushing 
in  upon  mankind.  If  ever  there  was  a  time  which  would  justify  the  reiteration  of  that 
exclamation,  the  time  is  now  arrived  :  For  the  man  who  is  the  source  of  all  the  mis- 
fortunes of  our  country  is  this  day  reduced  to  a  level  with  his  fellow-citizens,  and  is  no 
longer  possessed  of  power  to  muUiplu  evils  upon  Ihe  United  States.  If  ever  there  was 
a  period  for  rejoicing  this  is  the  moment.  Every  heart  in  unison  with  the  freedom  and 
happiness  of  the  people  ought  to  beat  high  with  exultation  that  the  name  of  Washington 
from  this  day  ceases  to  give  a  currency  to  political  iniquity,  and  to  legalize  corruption 
A  new  era  is  now  opening  upon  us,  a  new  era  which  promises  much  to  the  people  ;  for 
public  measures  must  now  stand  upon  their  own  merits,  and  nefarious  projects  can  no 
more  be  supported  by  a  name.  When  a  retrospection  is  taken  of  the  Washington  admin- 
istration for  eight  years  past,  it  is  a  subject  of  the  greatest  astonishment  that  a  single 
individual  should  have  canceled  the  principles  of  republicanism  in  an  enlightened  people 
just  emerged  from  the  gulf  of  despotism,  and  should  have  carried  his  designs  against  the 
public  liberty  so  far  as  to  have  put  in  jeopardy  its  very  existence.  Such,  however,  are  the 
facts,  and  with  these  staring  us  in  the  face,  this  day  ought  to  be  a  jubilee  in  the  United 
States. 

And  this  from  the  New  York  Daily  Gazette: 

Now  should  the  people  rejoice  exceedingly  and  let  their  hearts  be  glnd,  for  now  is  the 
source  of  all  misfortune  brought  down  to  the  level  of  his  fellow-men.     Now  will  political 
Iniquity  cease  to  be  legalized  by  a  name. 
35352 — 8875 


8 


Sere  Is  still  another  ebullition: 


After  bringing  the  country  to  the  very  brink  of  ruin,  Washington  has  flort  from  the 
gathering  storm.  Having  run  the  ship  between  rocks  and  shoals,  he  has  abandoned  the 
helm  and  left  the  vessel  to  her  fate. 

Bnt  the  muck-rakers  did  not  cease  their  attacks  even  after  the  retirement  of 
the  President  and  the  inauguration  of  his  successor.  lie  had  been  accused  of 
almost  every  imaginable  ofl'ense,  but  on  the  llth  of  March,  1707,  he  was  actually 
accused  of  murder  in  a  letter  of  the  "Vox  Populi "  sort,  which  was  published 
in  the  Aurora  of  that  date.  It  is  so  vicious  and  so  insidious  that  I  am  inclined 
to  the  belief  that  the  writer,  who  signed  himself  "  T.  T.  L.,"  must  have  been 
the  progenitor  of  "A  Citizen,"  "Justice,"  and  the  whole  brood  of  literary  hacks 
who  seek  to  cover  the  vile  emanations  from  their  scurrilous  pens  with  that 
Jiiud  of  anonymity.  Let  me  read  it  to  you : 

Mr.  BACHE  :  I  saw  in  your  last  number  a  letter  signed  "  George  Washington,"  solemnly 
tleuying  the  authenticity  of  certain  private  letters  dated  in  1770  and  ascribed  to  him. 
For  the  honor  of  this  country  I  sincerely  rejoice  that  those  letters  were  not  genuine  ;  but 
I  must  say  that  I  think  Mr.  Washington  blamable  for  not  having  earlier  noticed  the 
forgery.  I  own,  for  one,  that  his  long  silence  produced  in  my  mind  disagreeable  doubts — • 
others  have  felt  them — and  I  can  not  but  think  that  as  a  servant  of  the  public  it  was  his 
duty  immediately  to  have  removed  such  doubts,  since  it  was  in  his  power  to  do  it  so 
readily.  His  personal  pride  should  have  been  overcome  for  the  sake  of  his  public  duty. 

The  necessity  of  public  confidence  being  attached  to  officers  in  important  stations, 
especially  in  a  "Government  like  ours,  should  have  pointed  out  early  to  him  the  necessity, 
however  disagreeable  the  task  to  his  personal  feelings,  of  stepping  forward  with  a  public 
denial  of  the  unworthy  sentiments  attributed  to  him  in  those  spurious  letters.  Since  he 
prevailed  upon  himself  to  break  the  ice,  there  is  another  subject  on  which  the  public 
mind,  I  think,  should  receive  some  light.  I  have  not  known  it  lately  to  be  a  matter  of 
public  discussion,  but  it  has  been  frequently  brought  forward  in  private  conversations, 
and  I  never  could  find  anyone  capable  of  giving  a  satisfactory  explanation,  and  probably 
from  the  old  date  of  this  transaction  (1754)  Mr.  Washington  may  be  the  only  person 
capable  of  giving  an  eclaircissement. 

The  accusation  in  question  is  no  less  than  having,  while  commanding  a  party  of 
'American  troops,  fired  on  a  flag  of  truce,  killed  the  officer  in  the  act  of  reading  a  sum- 
mons under  the  sanction  of  such  a  flag,  of  having  attempted  to  vindicate  the  act,  and  yet 
of  having  signed  a  capitulation  in  which  the  killing  of  that  officer  and  his  men  was 
acknowledged  as  an  act  of  assassination. 

The  charge  is  of  too  serious  a  nature,  firing  on  a  flag  of  truce  is  so  unprecedented  an 
act,  even  in  savage  warfare,  and  signing  an  acknowledgment  of  having  been  guilty  of 
assassination  so  degrading  to  a  man,  and  especially  to  a.  military  man,  that  I  feel  confi- 
dent there  must  have  been  some  egregious  misstatement  in  the  account  given  of  the  busi- 
ness. I  have  imagined  this  also  must  be  some  forgery,  or  that  Maj.  George  Washington, 
who  was  taken  at  Fort  Necessity  in  1754,  could  not  be  the  same  person  as  George  Wash- 
ington, late  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  transaction  alluded  to  is  recorded  in  a  pamphlet  published  here  in  the  year  1757, 
purporting  to  be  the  translation  of  a  memorial  containing  a  summary  view  of  facts, 
with  their  authorities,  in  answer  to  the  observations  sent  by  the  English  ministry  to  the 
courts  of  Europe. 

Mr.  Washington  can  settle  every  doubt  upon  this  subject  by  declaring  whether  this 
memorial  was  a  forgery,  whether  the  journal  it  contains,  purporting  to  be  his  journal, 
and  especially  the  capitulation,  acknowledging  the  killing  of  Mr.  Jurnonville  and  his  men 
to  have  been  an  act  of  assassination,  were  papers  forged  to  answer  the  purposes  of  the 
French  court,  or  whether  he  is  the  Major  Washington  there  alluded  to. 

T.  T.  L. 

Of  course  the  sole  purpose  of  such  slander  was  to  embitter  the  declining  years 
of  Washington.  Although  the  incident  referred  to  had  occurred  some  forty- 
three  years  earlier,  Washington  had  kept  a  journal  of  the  military  expeditions 
to  which  he  had  been  attached  as  a  major  of  militia,  and  one  paragraph  of  that 
journal  will  suffice  to  show  how  malicious  was  the  attack  on  the  ex-President. 
Washington  had  written : 

They  say  they  called  to  us  as  soon  as  they  discovered  us,  which  is  an  absolute  false- 
hood, for  I  was  then  marching  at  the  head  of  the  company,  going  toward  them,  and  can 
positively  affirm  that  when  they  first  saw  us  they  ran  to  their  arms  without  calling,  as  I 
must  have  heard  them  had  they  done  so. 

The  journal  gives  a  complete  account  of  the  entire  affair,  and  the  muck-rak- 
ing newspapers  did  not  long  dwell  upon  the  incident. 

But  perhaps  the  most  bitter  attack  that  was  made  upon  Washington  was  that 
of  Thomas  Paine.  He  had  been  a  stanch  supporter  of  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion and  of  President  Washington,  and  had  frequently  taken  occasion  to  exalt 
them  both,  not  only  in  speech,  but  also  in  writing.  You  will  recall  that  he 
dedicated  the  first  part  of  his  Rights  of  Man  to  General  Washington,  and  in 
that  dedication  addressed  him  thus : 

SIR  :  I  present  you  a  small  treatise  in  defense  of  those  principles  of  freedom  which 
your  exemplary  virtue  has  so  eminently  contributed  to  establish.  That  the  Rights  of 
Man  may  become  as  universal  as  your  benevolence  can  wish,  and  that  you  may  enjoy  the 
happiness  of  seeing  the  New  World  regenerate  the  Old,  is  the  prayer  of 

Your  most  obliged,  etc.,  T.  PAINB, 

S5352— 8875 


In  the  second  part  of  tbe  Rights  of  Man  he  eulogized  Washington  as  follows : 

I  presume  that  no  m«n  In  his  sober  senses  will  compare  the  character  of  any  of  the 
kings  of  Europe  with  that  of  Washington. 

As  soon  as  nine  States  had  concurred  (and  the  rest  followed  in  the  order  that  their 
conventions  were  elected)  the  old  fabric  of  the  Federal  Government  was  taken  down, 
and  the  new  one  erected,  of  which  General  Washington  is  President.  In  this  place  I  can 
not  help  remarking  that  the  character  and  services  of  tliis  r/cntlcman  arc  sufficient  to  put 
all  those  men  called  kings  to  shame.  While  they  are  receiving  from  the  sweat  and  labors 
of  mankind  a  prodigality  of  pay,  to  which  neither  their  abilities  nor  their  services  can 
entitle  them,  he  is  rendering  ecery  sen-ice  in  Ms  poirer  and  refusing  crcry  pecuniary 
reward.  He  accepted  no  pay  as  commander  in  chief — he  accepts  none  as  President  of  the 
United  States. 

He  wrote  to  the  Abbe  Raynall  and  extolled  the  wisdom,  the  greatness,  and 
especially  the  military  genius  of  Washington.  During  all  these  years  he  was 
a  fulsome  admirer  of  our  first  President.  While  in  France  he  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  National  Assembly  at  the  time  of  the  French  revolution,  and  was 
one  of  the  committee  that  sentenced  Louis  XVI  to  be  beheaded.  Later  on  he 
quarreled  with  Robespierre,  who  promptly  had  him  thrown  into  a  dungeon. 
He  frantically  appealed  to  Washington  to  take  him  out  of  durance  vile,  and 
because  the  President  did  not  move  expeditiously  enough  to  suit  Mr.  Paine  in 
the  matter — and  It  is  but  fair  to  state  that  the  President  felt  that  Paine  was 
entirely  responsible  for  his  unfortunate  predicament,  and  that  having  expatri- 
ated himself  and  become  a  citizen  of  France,  this  Government  was  not  justified 
in  interfering  in  his  behalf — the  erratic  Thomas  penned  a  villainous  letter  to  the 
President,  which,  as  a  fair  example  of  muck-rake  literature,  has  few  equals  in 
the  English  language.  I  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  parts  in  which  he  roundly 
denounced  the  Federal  Constitution,  that  instrument  that  he  had  so  richly 
extolled  before,  but  I  will  read  to  you  a  few  paragraphs  from  this  miserable 
screed,  which,  of  course,  was  given  generous  circulation  by  that  portion  of  the 
press  that  still  continued  hostile  to  Washington  and  his  friends : 

When  we  speak  of  military  character,  something  more  is  understood  than  constancy, 
and  something  more  ought  to  he  understood  than  the  Fabian  system  of  doing  nothing. 
The  nothing  part  can  be  done  by  anybody.  Old  Mrs.  Thompson,  the  housekeeper  of  head- 
quarters, who  threatened  to  make  the  sun  and  the  wind  shine  through  Rivington,  of  New 
York,  could  have  done  it  as  well  as  Mr.  Washington.  Deborah  would  have  been  as  good 
as  Barak.  The  successful  skirmishes  at  the  close  of  one  campaign,  matters  that  would 
scarcely  be  noticed  in  a  better  state  of  things,  make  the  brilliant  exploits  of  General 
Washington's  seven  campaigns.  A'o  wonder  tee  see  so  much  pusillanimity  in  the  President 
when  we  see  so  little  enterprise  in  the  General. 

******* 

Elevated  to  the  chair  of  the  presidency,  you  assumed  the  merit  of  everything  to  your- 
self, and  the  natural  ingratitude  of  your  constitution  began  to  appear.     You  commenced 
your  presidential  career  by  encouraging  and  swallowing  the  grossest  adulation,  and  you 
traveled  America  from  one  end  to  the  other  to  put  yourself  in  the  way  of  receiving  it. 
******* 

You  have  as  many  addresses  in  your  chest  as  James  II.  Monopolies  of  every  kind 
marked  your  administration  almost  in  the  moment  of  its  commencement.  The  lands 
obtained  in  the  Revolution  were  lavished  upon  partisans  ;  the  interest  of  the  disbanded 
soldier  was  sold  to  the  speculator;  injustice  icas  acted  under  the  pretense  of  faith,  and 
the  chief  of  the  army  became  the  patron  of  the  fraud. 

And  as  to  you,  sir,  treacherous  In  private  friendship  and  a  hypocrite  in  public  life,  the 
world  will  be  puzzled  to  decide  whether  you  are  an  apostate  or  an  impostor  ;  whether  you 
have  abandoned  good  principles  or  whether  you  ever  had  any. 

But  to  my  mind  Paine's  change  of  front  is  not  unlike  that  of  some  of  the 
muck-rake  sheets  of  the  present  era..  Have  not  we  all  seen  men  high  in  public 
life  extolled  day  after  day  and  week  after  week  in  these  muck-mking  sheets 
or  magazines,  so  long  as  they  were  willing  to  take  the  progrnmmp  of  the  muck- 
raker?  And  have  not  we  all  seen  these  same  muck-rakers  bespatter  the  same 
men  with  their  vile  slanders,  their  infamous  abuse,  simply  because  the  victims 
had  the  nerve  and  the  courage  to  follow  the  paths  of  duty  according  to  their 
own  light  and  the  dictates  of  their  consciences?  [Applause.] 

There  was  another  "  muck-raker  "  of  that  period,  to  whom  I  will  give  but 
passing  attention  at  present.  I  will  tell  you  more  about  him  a  little  later  on. 
His  name  was  Callender;  and  up  to  the  time  of  Washington's  death  this  in- 
famous wretch  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  vindictively  attacking  the  former 
Chief  Magistrate.  He  frequently  accused  the  latter  of  walking  through  the 
Constitution,  through  the  privileges  of  the  legislature,  and  through  the  re- 
spective duties  of  his  office. 

Of  Washington's  military  ability  he  wrote: 

He  was  at  the  head  of  an  army  for  seven  years  and  a  hnlf  and  was  several  times 
beaten — his  fame  as  a  conqueror  rests  on  tlie  capture  of  900  Hessians. 
35352—8875 


10 

In  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Prospect  Before  Us  "  he  said  of  Washington  and 
the  now  famous  farewell  address  : 

Bv  his  own  account,  Mr.  Washington  was  twice  a  traitor—  he  first  renounced  the  King 
of  England  and  thereafter  the  old  confederation.  His  farewell  paper  contains  a  variety 
of  mischievous  sentiments. 

[Laughter.] 

These  attacks  embittered  Washington's  declining  years;  but  they  were  soon 
forgotten,  for  when  the  great  patriot's  eyes  were  closed  in  everlasting  sleep  on 
December  14,  1790,  the  whole  world  was  ready  to  acknowledge  the  truth  of 
Lee's  immortal  tribute,  "  First  in  peace,  first  in  war,  first  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen."  [Applause.]  The  muck-rakers  who  assailed  him  have  gone  to 
forgotten  graves.  Who  notes  or  cares  what  vile  slanders  they  published  of 
him?  His  name  will  live,  a  beacon  light  in  the  world's  history,  and  his  fame 
will  never  die  while  the  world  shall  endure.  [Applause.] 

During  the  administration  of  John  Adams,  the  Federalist  press  and  the  Demo- 
cratic press  vied  with  each  other  in  printing  abuse  of  the  adherents  of  the 
opposing  political  parties.  The  President  was  constantly  assailed  by  the  Demo- 
cratic muck-rakers  of  that  day.  I  shall  not  dwell  at  any  length  upon  the  articles 
that  the  delver  into  the  contemporaneous  newspaper  literature  of  that  period 
will  bring  to  light,  but  I  will  content  myself  with  quoting  just  a  few  excerpts 
from  "  The  Prospect  Before  us,"  which  was  said  to  have  been  written  and  pub- 
lished by  Calleuder  while  the  latter  was  undergoing  sentence  in  the  Richmond 
(Va.)  jail,  having  been  convicted  under  the  sedition  laws  that  had  been  passed 
during  the  Adams  administration. 

He  delighted  to  refer  to  President  Adams  as  "  a  hoary  traitor,"  and  charged 
him  with  having  "  only  completed  the  scene  of  ignominy  which  Mr.  Washington 
had  begun."  Here  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  inud  with  which  he  bespattered  the 
then  President  of  the  United  States: 

In  the  summer  of  1798  it  was  understood  that  Mr.  Adams  had  remarked  a  resemblance 
of  character  between  himself  and  the  great  and  immortal  Frederick  of  Prussia.  This 
will  not  seem  incredible  when  we  call  to  mind  what  is  positively  true,  that  Mr.  Adams, 
In  a  fit  of  passion,  has  twirled  off  his  wig,  and  stamped  upon*  it.  I  should,  upon  ali 
common  occasions,  ahhor  the  smallest  reference  to  personalities  like  this.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  our  American  Frederick  has  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  whole 
battalion  of  the  trumpeters  of  personal  slander,  and  that  an  honest  traveler  mav  with 
justice,  knock  down  a  footpad  with  the  butt  end  of  the  robber's  own  pistol  It  'is  not 
so  well  known,  as  it  should  be,  that  this  federal  gem.  this  apostle  of  the  parsons  of 
Connecticut,  is  not  only  a  repulsive  pedant,  a  gross  hypocrite  and  an  unnrincinled 


e       o 

accept,  as  her  President,  a  person  without  abilities  and  without  virtues  •   a  beine-  alike 
incapable  of  attracting  either  tenderness  or  esteem. 

The  historian  will  search  for  those  occult  causes  that  induced  her  to  exalt  an  individnnl 
who  has  neither  that  innocence  of  sensibility  which  incites  us  to  love  nor  that  omnipotence 
of  intellect  which  commands  us  to  admire.     He  will  ask  why  the  United  States  de-rortAH 
themselves  to  the  choice  of  a  wretch  whose  soul  came  blasted  from  the  hand  of  nat 
of  a  wretch  that  has  neither  the  science  of  a  magistrate,  the  politeness  of  a  courtier 
the   courage  of  a   man.     *      *      *  iKl> 

In  his  correspondence  with  England  John  was,  to  the  degree,  tame    misillanimrmc 
contemptible,  while  toward  France  he  was  insolent,  inconsfstent,  and  quarresoTe  tn 
extreme,  which  demonstrates  a  partial  derangement  of  his  pericranium      *      *      * 


Mr.  Chairman  I  am  rather  inclined  to  believe  that  our  friends  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Chamber  our  ancient  enemy,  the  Democrats,  are  counting  upon  the 
present-day  muck-rakers  to  help  them  sweep  the  countrv  in  the  fal  cainmi-n 
Indeed,  I  have  seen  quotations  from  several  speeches  of  the  distinguished^  ,?£ 
of  the  minority  upon  this  floor,  wherein  he  confidently  predicts  the  elect  o  of 
a  Democratic  House  But  then  the  distinguished  gentleman  my  good  frLnd 
from  Missouri  [Mr.  CLARK],  is  rather  given  to  the  indulgence  of  ttSTfl-nre  of 
speech  known  as  hyperbole.  I  think  he  indulged  in  hyperbole  when  he  stated 
in  this  House  that  "  the  greatest  calamity  that  ever  befell  the  human  race  Snce 
the  fall  of  Adam  was  the  second  election  of  Grover  Cleveland."  [LaSSer  on 

&JSKSSK  Slde'],  *  d°  D0t  think  the  C0lintl'y  a^reed  with  him  then  a  M  I 
do  not  think  the  country  is  taking  him  seriously  now,  when  he  predicts  a  Demo- 
cratic House  for  the  Sixty-second  Congress.  But  I  want  to  emphasize  this  ££ 


11 

that  the  muck-rakers  may  make  the  people  wobble  a  little  now  and  then,  but 
they  generally  wobble  back  again  at  election  time  when  they  shall  have  learned 
the  truth  through  the  public  discussion  of  great  public  questions.  That  this  is 
absolutely  true  is  amply  demonstrated  in  the  life  of  that  patron  saint  of  Democ- 
racy, Thomas  Jefferson. 

In  the  campaign  of  1800  the  Federalists  charged  that  Jefferson — 

hnd  obtained  his  property  by  fraud  and  robbery  ;  that  in  one  instance  he  had  defrauded 
and  robbed  a  widow  and  fatherless  children  of  an  estate  to  which  he  was  executor,  of 
£10,0^(1.  by  keeping  tho  property  and  paying  them  money  at  the  nominal  rate  when  it 
was  worth  more  than  forty  to  one. 

That  this  attack  was  earnestly  resented  is  evidenced  by  a  letter  he  wrote  to  a 
friend,  in  which  he  said: 

I  never  was  executor  but  in  two  instances,  both  of  which  having  taken  place  about 
the  beginning  of  the  revolution,  which  withdrew  me  immediately  from  all  private  pursuits, 
I  never  meddled  in  either  executorship.  In  one  of  the  cases  only  were  there  a  widow  and 
children.  She  was  my  sister.  She  retained  and  managed  the  estate  in  her  own  hands, 
and  no  part  of  it  ever  was  in  mine.  In  the  other,  I  was  a  copartner  and  only  received, 
on  a  division,  the  equal  portion  allotted  me.  Again,  my  property  is  all  patrimonial,  except 
about  seven  or  eight  hundred  pounds  worth  of  lands,  purchased  by  myself  and  paid  for, 
not  to  widows  and  orphans,  but  to  the  very  gentlemen  from  whom  I  purchased. 

But  he  was  so  fearful  of  a  newspaper  controversy  that  he  added : 

I  only  pray  that  my  letter  may  not  go  out  of  your  hands,  lest  it  should  get  Into  the 
newspapers,  a  bear-garden  scene  into  which  I  have  made  it  a  point  to  enter  on  no  provo- 
cation. 

[Laughter.] 

And  there  is  not  wanting  other  evidence  that  Jefferson  was  rather  afraid 
of  the  muck-rakers  of  his  day.  He  was  a  firm  believer  in  freedom  of  speech, 
freedom  of  thought,  and  freedom  of  the  press,  but  the  viciousness  of  the  news- 
paper attacks  which  were  made  upon  him  all  through  his  administration  so 
exasperated  him  that  he  actually  advocated  the  appointment  of  government 
censors.  In  a  letter  to  President  Washington  he  wrote  the  following: 

No  government  ought  to  be  without  censors,  and  where  the  press  is  free  no  one  else 
ever  will  be. 

[Laughter.] 

On  one  occasion  he  remarked  to  a  friend: 

There  is  nothing  true  In  the  newspapers  except  the  advertisements. 

[Laughter.] 

But  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  many  of  those  who  have  felt  the  sting  of 
newspaper  vituperation  will  not  be  willing  even  to  subscribe  to  the  doctrine 
that  the  advertisements  are  true.  [Laughter.] 

Nor  were  the  journalists  and  the  pamphleteers  alone  in  this  onslaught  on  the 
great  Republican.  A  prominent  Connecticut  clergyman,  in  a  campaign  pam- 
phlet, charges  him  with  gross  immorality  and  dishonesty.  The  Rev.  John  M. 
Mason,  in  a  pamphlet  which  he  called  "  The  Voice  of  Warning  to  Christians," 
said: 

I  dread  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson  because  I  believe  him  to  be  a  confirmed  infidel. 
*  *  *  Christians !  Lay  these  things  together,  compare  them,  examine  them  separately 
and  collectively  ;  ponder,  pause,  lay  your  hands  upon  your  hearts,  lift  up  your  hearts  to 
Heaven  and  pronounce  on  Mr.  Jefferson's  Christianity.  You  can  not  stifle  your  emotions 
not  forbear  uttering  your  indignant  sentence — infidel ! 

Parton,  in  his  Life  of  Jefferson,  is  so  indignant  at  the  clergy  of  New  England 
that  he  says  they — 

continued  to  revile  the  greatest  Christian  America  hnd  produced  in  terms  surpassing  In 
violence  those  which  the  clergy  of  Palestine  applied  to  the  founder  of  Christianity. 

"  He  is  an  atheist,"  Dr.  David  Osgood,  of  Massachusetts,  remarked,  and  "  no 
better  than  the  '  race  of  demons '  to  whose  service  he  has  been  devoted." 
[Laughter.] 

Young  Edward  Payson,  of  Portland,  signalized  his  entrance  into  public  life 
by  delivering  a  Fourth  of  July  oration,  in  which  he  observed  that  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Gallatin,  and  their  colleagues  were  men  of  a  character  so  Arile  that 
"  the  most  malicious  ingenuity  can  invent  nothing  worse  than  the  truth." 

Ah,  my  Democratic  friends,  have  you  read  anything  more  severe  in  the 
muck-rake  periodicals  of  to-day  concerning  our  own  present  Chief  Executive, 
the  distinguished  occupant  of  the  White  House,  William  Howard  Taft?  I  think 
not.  [Applause  on  the  Republican  side.] 

35352—8875 


12 

But  the  worst  offender  of  all  was  the  man  Callender,  of  whom  I  have  already 
spoken.  He  bad  been  convicted  of  sedition  during  the  latter  part  of  President 
John  Adams's  administration,  and  had  been  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  $200  and 
to  serve  a  term  of  imprisonment  in  the  jail  at  Richmond,  Va.  It  was  while  he 
wns  incarcerated  there  that  he  wrote  the  pamphlet,  "The  Prospect  Before  Us." 
When  Jefferson  became  President  he  promptly  remitted  the  line  and  pardoned 
this  muck-raker.  Almost  immediately  thereafter  Calleuder  made  a  demand 
upon  Jefferson  for  the  appointment  to  the  postmastership  at  Richmond.  Jef- 
ferson, to  his  great  credit,  refused  to  make  the  appointment.  And  then,  as  in 
the  case  when  Paine  attacked  Washington,  this  miserable  creature  dipped  his 
quill  into  gall  and  wormwood  and  day  after  day  served  his  readers  with  the 
vilest  abuse  of  the  first  President  elected  by  the  Democratic  party. 

He  became  the  editor  of  the  Richmond  Recorder,  and  "  filled  that  paper  with 
countless  stories,  partly  his  own  and  partly  gossip  gathered  among  overseers  and 
scandal  mongers.  The  sheet,  hitherto  a  petty  local  publication,  now  found 
subscribers  in  the  remotest  sections  of  the  country ;  for  Callender's  character- 
istic onslaught  was  of  the  most  ignoble,  but  certainly  of  the  most  effective  kind. 
He  charged  Jefferson  with  having  been  his  friend  and  financial  assistant  and 
his  confederate  in  the  libels  on  Washington ;  but  his  chief  topic  was  Jefferson's 
private  life,  and  his  many  tales  were  scandalous  and  revolting  to  the  last 
degree." 

He  charged  Jefferson,  among  other  things — 

with  having  a  family  of  negro  children  by  a  slave  woman  named  Sally ;  with  having  heen 
turned  out  of  the  house  of  a  certain  Major  Walker  for  writing  a  secret  love  letter  to  his 
wife ;  and  with  having  swindled  his  creditors  by  paying  debts  in  worthless  cur- 
rency. *  *  * 

All  these  charges  were  welcomed  by  the  Federalist  press,  reprinted  even  in 
the  New  York  Evening  Post  [laughter],  and  scattered  broadcast  over  New 
England. 

It  is  stated  that — 

Every  Federalist  writer  hastened  to  draw  for  his  own  use  bucketful  after  bucketful 
from  Calleuder's  foul  reservoir  ;  and  that  the  gossip  about  Jefferson's  graceless  debauch- 
eries was  sent  into  every  household  in  the  United  States. 

To  be  sure,  such  villainous  abuse  wears  itself  out  in  time ;  but,  alas,  too  many 
people  are  prone  to  believe  all  that  they  read  in  the  newspapers  and  the  maga- 
zines, and  until  the  readers  become  better  informed  the  abuse  has  a  malignant 
effect.  And  so  these  publications  of  the  muck-raker  Callender  so  poisoned  the 
mind  of  W'illiam  Culleu  Bryant,  then  a  mere  lad  of  14  years,  that  this  youth 
published  The  Embargo;  A  Satire,  a  poem  of  600  lines,  against  Mr.  Jefferson, 
from  which  I  quote  the  following : 

Ye  who  rely  on  Jeffersonian  skill, 
And  say  that  fancy  paints  ideal  ill, 
Go,  on  the  wing  of  observation  fly, 
Cast  o'er  the  land  a  scrutinizing  eye ; 
States,  counties,  towns,  remark  with  keen  review, 
Let  facts  convince,  and  own  the  picture  true  1 
*  *  *  * 

When  shall  this  land,  some  courteous  angel  say, 
Throw  off  a  weak  and  erring  ruler's  sway? 
Rise,  injured  people,  vindicate  your  cause, 
And  prove  your  love  of  liberty  and  laws  1 
Oh,  wrest,  sole  refuge  of  a  sinking  land, 
The  scepter  from  the  slave's  imbecile  hand  1 
Oh,  ne'er  consent  obsequious  to  advance, 
The  willing  vassal  of  imperious  France  1 
Correct  that  suffrage  you  misused  before, 
And  lift  your  voice  above  a  Congress  roar ; 
And  thou,  the  scorn  of  every  patriot's  name, 
Thy  country's  ruin,  and  her  councils  shame  1 
Poor  servile  thing!  derision  of  the  brave! 
Who  erst  from  Tarlton  fled  to  Carter's  cave  ; 

Thou  who,  when  menaced  by  perfidious  Gaul,  . 

Didst  prostrate  to  her  whiskered  minion  fall ; 
And  when  our  cash,  her  empty  bags  supplied, 
Didst  meanly  strive  the  foul  disgrace  to  hide, 
Go,  wretch,  resign  the  presidential  chair, 
Disclose  thy  secret  measures,  foul  or  fair. 
Go,  search  with  curious  eyes  for  horned  frogs, 
'Mid  the  wild  wastes  of  Louisianian  bogs, 
Or,  where  Ohio  rolls  his  turbid  stream, 
Dig  for  huge  bones,  thy  glory  and  thy  theme ; 
Go  scan,  philosophist,  thy   *******  charms, 
And  sink  supinely  in  her  sable  arms  ; 
But  quit  to  abler  hands  the  helm  of  State, 
Nor  image  ruin  on  thy  country's  fate. 
85352—8875 


13 

At  a  later  period  the  great  Irish  poet,  Tom  Moore,  visited  the  United  States 
and  heard  all  this  slander  rehearsed.  He,  too,  believed  it  gospel  truth,  arid  ia 
consequence  he  wrote  the  following  stanza : 

The  patriot,  fresh  from  freedom's  councils  come, 
Now  pleased,  retires  to  lash   his  slaves  at  home, 
Or  woo,  perhaps,  some   black  Aspasia's  charms, 
r  And  dream  of  freedom  in  his  bondmaid's  arms. 

And  in  order  that  the  reader  might  not  mistake  the  reference  the  poet  adds 
a  footnote  to  tell  him  that  President  Jefferson  was  the  patriot  intended  to  be 
described.  [Laughter.]  And  just  as  the  muck-rakers  of  the  Washington  admin- 
istration uttered  pagans  of  joy  upon  his  retirement,  so  the  muck-rakers  of  the 
Jefferson  administration  shouted  their  hosaimahs  upon  the  retirement  from  the 
Presidency  of  the  writer  of  the  immortal  Declaration  of  Independence.  Listen 
to  this  broadside : 

At  home,  agriculture,  manufactures,  the  fisheries,  navigation,  and  commerce  were 
encouraged  and  extended.  The  credit  of  the  Nation  was  revived,  its  capital  enlarged,  and 
its  revenues  established,  the  public  arsenals  were  replenished,  a  naval  force  created,  and 
the  American  name  upheld  and  revered  throughout  the  world. 

Such  is  the  exact  picture  of  our  situation  when  Mr.  Jefferson  came  into  office.  What  la 
the  state  of  the  country  now,  as  it  passes  out  of  his  hands?  Why  this — this  is  Mr. 
Jefferson's  work : 

Our  agriculture  discouraged. 

Our  fisheries  abandoned. 

Our  navigation  forbidden. 

Our  commerce  at  home  restrained  if  not  annihilated. 

Our  commerce  abroad  cut  off. 

Our  navy  sold,  dismantled,  or  degraded  to  the  service  of  cutters  and  gunboats. 

The   revenue  extinguished. 

The  course  of  justice  interrupted. 

The  military  power  exalted  above  the  civil. 

And  by  setting  up  a  standard  of  political  faith  unknown  to  the  Constitution  the  nation 
weakened  by  internal  animosities  and  division  at  the  moment  when  it  is  unnecessarily  and 
improvidently  exposed  to  war  with  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Spain. 

So  great  a  change  accomplished  in  so  short  a  time  is  unexampled  in  the  history  of 
weak  and  unfaithful  administrations,  and  can  have  proceeded  only  from  the  want  of 
that  capacity,  integrity,  and  prudence  without  which  no  government  can  long  preserve 
the  prosperity  or  tlie  confidence  of  the  country. 

I  dare  say  that  when  these  lines  were  written  they  created  impressions  among 
the  American  people  not  unlike  the  impressions  that  the  muck-raker  of  to-day  is 
trying  to  create  against  men  high  in  public  station.  [Applause.]  But  as  we 
scan  the  life  of  Thomas  Jefferson  to-day,  Republicans  and  Democrats,  Populists 
and  Socialists,  regulars  and  insurgents,  none  recall  the  attacks  that  helped  to 
embitter  his  life  at  the  time  that  they  were  made,  but  we  will  never  forget  that 
he  is  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  ludepeudence,  that  he  is  the  founder  of 
the  University  of  Virginia,  and  that  it  was  due  to  his  wisdom,  foresight,  and 
sagaciousness  that  the  purchase  of  the  extensive  and  fertile  Louisiana  territory 
was  accomplished.  [Applause.] 

In  the  presidential  election  of  1824  none  of  the  candidates  had  a  clear  ma- 
jority in  the  electoral  college,  and  the  contest  was  decided  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives by  the  election  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  As  soon  as  he  had  been 
inaugurated  he  selected  his  Cabinet  and  made  Henry  Clay  his  Secretary  of 
State.  Clay  had  also  been  a  candidate,  but  his  followers  threw  their  strength 
to  Adams  and  against  Andrew  Jackson,  thereby  insuring  the  defeat  of  "Old 
Hickory."  Immediately  the  opposition  newspapers  declared  that  a  corrupt  deal 
had  been  entered  into  between  Adams  and  Clay,  and  that  in  consideration  of  his 
assistance  to  the  former  the  latter  was  made  Secretary  of  State.  There  were 
denials  and  countercharges,  criminations  and  recriminations  in  the  papers,  ia 
pamphlets,  and  in  the  forum  all  through  the  administration  of  John  Quiiicy 
Adams.  There  are  a  number  of  volumes  of  pamphlets  in  the  Congressional 
Library  that  were  published  during  the  campaign  of  l*2s,  and  their  perusal  at 
this  late  day  causes  one  to  marvel  at  their  virulence  and  their  vindictiveiu-ss. 

In  addition  to  much  personal  and  political  abuse,  a  vile  charge  was  published 
against  the  President,  and  I  quote  from  Volume  VII  of  his  Memoirs,  in  which 
he  tells  the  muck-rake  story  in  his  own  way: 

30th.  Mr.  Everett  called  to  make  inquiries  concerning  an  infamous  calumny  upon  me 
contained!  in  a  note  te  an  electioneering  life  of  General  Jacksen,  published  by  Isnac  Hill, 
editor  of  a  newspaper  in  New  Hampshire.  It  is  that,  while  in  Russia,  I  attempted  te 
make  use  of  a  beautiful  girl  to  seduce  the  passions  of  the  Emperor  Alexander  and  sway 
him  to  political  purposes.  This  is  a  new  form  of  slander — one  of  the  thousand  malicious 
lies  which  outvenom  all  the  worms  of  Nile,  and  are  circulated  in  every  part  of  the  country 
in  newspapers  aad  pamphlets. 

I  told  Mr.   Everett  the  incident  upon  which  this  tale  was  raised  :  that  when  we  went 

to  Russia  a  very  beautiful  girl,  a  native  of  Boston,  named-  Martha  Godfrey,  went  with  us 

as  chambermaid  to  my  wife  and  nurse  to  our  son  Charles,  then  a  child  2  years  old. 

35352—8875 


418549 


14 

after  our  arrival  at  St.  Petersburg,  Martha  wrote  a  letter,  perhaps  to  her  mother,  relating 
Btories  that  she  had  heard  there  of  the  Emperor's  amours  and  gallantries.  This  letter, 
having  been  sent  to  the  post-office,  was,  according  to  the  custom  there,  opened  and  sent 
as  a  curiosity  to  the  Emperor,  who  was  diverted  with  it  and  showed  it  to  the  Empress. 
They  both  felt  a  curiosity  to  see  the  girl  who  had  written  this  letter,  and  some  of  the 
ladies  of  the  court,  who  had  visited  Mrs.  Adams,  having  seen  Charles  with  his  nurse,  had 
spoken  to  the  Empress  of  both  in  such  manner  ns  still  further  to  excite  her  curiosity. 
The  Empress  than  had  a  sister  living  with  her,  the  Princess  Amelia  of  Baden.  She  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  see  Charles,  and  he  was  sent  one  morning  to  her  apartment  in  the 
palace.  Martha,  his  nurse,  went  with  him,  and  while  they  were  in  the  princess's  apart- 
ment the  Emperor  and  Empress  both  went  there  and  passed  perhaps  ten  minutes  in 
talking  with  the  child,  and  at  the  same  time  they  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  nurse 
whose  letter  had  afforded  them  some  amusement.  It  is  from  this  trivial  incident  that 
this  base  calumny  has  been  trumped  up.  There  never  was  any  other  foundation  for  It. 
Martha  Godfrey  was  a  girl  of  irreproachable  conduct.  She  returned  to  the  United  States 
with  Mrs.  Smith,  married  a  very  respectable  musical-instrument  maker  in  Boston,  and 
died  there  within  the  last  three  or  four  years. 

Later  on  iu  his  memoirs  he  again  refers  to  this  matter: 

Mr.  Clay  had  a  note  verbale  from  the  Russian  minister,  Baron  Krudener,  complaining 
of  the  slander  upon  the  memory  of  the  Emperor  Alexander  in  the  pamphlet  noticed  by 
Mr.  Everett,  and  inquiring  if  there  were  no  means  of  obtaining  reparation  for  it.  I 
advised  Mr.  Clay  to  see  the  baron  and  say  to  him  that  there  was  no  remedy  against  such 
libels  in  this  country  but  contempt ;  but  to  observe  that  in  this  particular  instance  the 
calumny  upon  the  Emperor  Alexander  was  slight  and  evidently  used  only  as  inducements 
to  the  infamous  imputations  upon  me  and  my  wife. 

But  fortunately  there  came  a  day  of  reckoning  for  the  muck-raker  Hill.  Presi- 
dent Jackson  nominated  him  for  the  position  of  Second  Comptroller  of  the  Treas- 
ury, but  the  Senate,  by  a  vote  of  33  to  15,  every  Senator  being  present,  refused 
to  ratify  his  nomination,  and  no  secret  was  made  of  the  fact  that  confirmation 
was  refused  by  reason  of  his  attacks  on  President  and  Mrs.  Adams  in  his  news- 
paper, the  New  Hampshire  Patriot. 

And  oh,  how  the  newspapers  and  pamphleteers  grilled  that  other  pride  of 
Democracy,  Andrew  Jackson.  [Laughter.]  During  this  campaign  of  1828  he 
was  called  a  murderer,  an  adulterer,  a  traitor,  an  ignoramus,  a  fool,  a  crook 
back,  a  pretender,  and  so  forth.  Let  me  quote  a  few  excerpts  from  the  pens  of 
the  muck  rakers  of  the  Jackson  period.  This  is  from  the  Richmond  Enquirer : 

We  can  not  consent  to  lend  a  hand  toward  the  election  of  such  a  man  as  General 
Jackson.  He  is  too  little  of  a  statesman,  too  rash,  too  violent  in  his  temper ;  his  meas- 
ures too  much  inclined  to  arbitrary  government  to  obtain  the  humble  support  of  the 
editors  of  this  paper.  We  could  deprecate  his  election  as  a  cross  upon  our  country. 

And  harken  unto  this  blast  from  the  New  York  Evening  Post: 

General  Jackson,  from  the  moment  he  was  intrusted  with  command,  has  avowedly  and 
systematically  made  his  own  will  and  pleasure  the  sole  rule  and  guide  of  all  his  actions. 
He  has  suspended  the  executive,  .legislative,  and  judicial  functions  with  military  sway. 
He  has  insulted  the  Executive  of'  the  United  States ;  spurned  its  authority,  disregarded 
and  transcended  its  orders.  He  has  usurped  the  high  prerogative  of  peace  and  war, 
intrusted  by  all  nations  to  the  sovereign  power  of  the  State,  and  by  our  own  Constitution 
to  Congress  alone.  He  has  broken  the  known  law  of  nations,  and  promulgated  a  new 
code  of  his  own,  conceived  in  madness  or  folly,  and  written  in  blood.  He  has,  in  fine, 
violated  all  laws,  human  and  divine. 

[Laughter.] 

During  this  bitter  political  contest  a  new  form  of  periodical,  known  as  cam- 
paign papers,  was  started.  The  most  virulent  were  two,  christened,  respectively, 
"  We,  the  People,"  and  the  "Anti-Jackson  Expositor."  The  President's  wife, 
and  even  his  mother,  became  the  subject  of  attacks. 

In  Philadelphia  one  John  Binns  issued  a  series  of  handbills,  each  bearing  the 
outline  of  a  coffin  lid,  upon  which  was  printed  an  inscription,  one  of  which  I 
will  quote  to  you : 

This  marble  cell  contains  the  mpldering  remains  of  the  gallant  David  Hunt.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution,  a  volunteer  in  the  Creek  war. 

He  faithfully  served  his  country  until  his  tour  of  duty  had  expired,  when  he  left  the 
camp  and  returned  to  the  home  of  his  brave  parent,  where,  learning  that  his  tour  of  duty 
had  possibly  not  expired,  he  returned  to  camp  and  to  his  duty,  the  veteran  father  saying, 
"  Go,  my  son  ;  I  am  sure  no  harm  can  come  to  you  ;  I,  too,  have  been  a  soldier,  and  under 
Washington,  a  soldier  returning  to  duty  which  he  had  left  in  error  always  found  mercy." 
But  the  son  nevermore  saw  the  face  of  his  venerable  father.  He  was  arrested,  tried,  a'nd 
shot  to  death  at  four  days'  notice,  by  order  of  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson,  on  the  21st  of 
February,  1815. 

The  militia  of  his  native  State  erected  this  simple  slab  to  his  memory  on  the  4th  of 
July,  1828. 

Oh,  my  friends  of  the  Democratic  minority,  I  join  with  you  in  reprobating 

this  product  of  the  muck-rakers'  pen  on  your  idol  and  the  idol  of  the  American 

people  during  his  lifetime.     But  did  the  assaults  of  the  muck-rakers  tarnish 

Andrew  Jackson's  fame?    Not  one  jot.    Nor  will  the  onslaughts  of  the  uiuck- 

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rakers  of  the  present  tarnish  the  fair  fame  of  those  in  high  station  to-day  wJio 
are  the  targets  for  equally  villainous  abuse.  [Applause.]  So  do  not  lay  the 
flattering  unction  to  your  souls  that  because  a  few  magazines  and  periodicals  are 
at  this  time  trying  to  fool  the  American  people  they  will  be  successful.  Long 
before  the  bleak  November  days  shall  have  come  the  people  will  have  seen  the 
light  of  truth.  That  majority  which  you  so  confidently  hope  for  will  not  ma- 
terialize this  year. 
As  the  immortal  Lincoln  said : 

You  may  fool  some  of  the  people  some  of  the  time ;  you  may  fool  some  of  the  people  all 
of  the  time ;  but  you  can  uot  fool  all  of  the  people  all  of  the  time. 

[Applause  on  the  Republican  side.] 

And  the  muck-raking  allies  of  your  Democratic  newspapers  are  trying  to  fool 
all  of  the  people  all  the  time.  [Applause  on  the  Republican  side.]  The  im- 
mortal Lincoln !  What  a  world  of  emotion  that  name  conjures  up.  No  wonder 
all  of  his  biographers  speak  of  the  sad  expression  of  his  countenance.  Was 
ever  mortal  man  so  villifled,  so  abused,  so  traduced,  so  defamed  as  he  was  in 
his  lifetime?  He  was  ridiculed,  reviled,  and  lampooned  as  no  other  man  in  our 
country's  history.  Gibes  and  jeers  and  sneers  were  his  daily  portion  in  the 
newspapers  of  this  country,  and  even  in  some  that  were  published  abroad,  dur- 
ing the  whole  civil  war.  "The  baboon  at  the  other  end  of  the  Avenue"  and 
"  That  damned  idiot  in  the  White  House  "  were  some  of  the  expletives  applied 
to  him  by  the  muck-rakers  of  his  day. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  so  outraged  by  the  obloquies,  so  stung  by  the  disparage- 
ments, his  existence  was  rendered  so  unhappy,  that  his  life  became  almost  a 
burden  to  him.  Lamon,  his  lifelong  friend,  says  that  one  day  he  went  to  the 
President's  office  and  found  him  lying  on  the  sofa,  greatly  distressed.  Jumping 
to  his  feet,  he  said : 

You  know,  Lamon,  better  than  any  living  man  that  from  boyhood  up  my  ambition  was  to 
be  President ;  but  look  at  me.  I  wish  I  had  never  been  born  !  I  had  rather  be  dead  than 
as  President  be  thus  abused  in  the  house  of  my  friends. 

One  delegate  at  Chicago  declared  that  for  less  offenses  than  Mr.  Lincoln  bad 
been  guilty  of  the  English  people  had  chopped  off  the  head  of  the  first  Charles. 
Another  arose  and  asserted  that — 

Ever  since  that  usurper,  traitor,  and  tyrant  has  occupied  the  presidential  chair  the 
party  has  shouted  "  War  to  the  knife,  and  the  knife  to  the  hilt !  '  Blood  has  flowed  in 
torrents  and  yet  the  thirst  of  the  old  monster  is  not  quenched.  His  cry  is  for  more  blood. 

But  why  continue  the  recital  of  the  calumnies,  the  insinuations,  the  half 
truths,  and  the  downright  lies  that  were  printed  in  abuse  of  the  great  emanci- 
pator? 

The  muck-rakers  who  made  his  life  miserable  are  rienrly  all  rotting  in  for- 
gotten graves.  But  the  name  of  Lincoln  will  shine  resplendent  through  all  the 
ages.  As  long  as  the  universe  shall  endure  he  will  tower,  giant-like,  above  the 
mere  pygmies  that  hurled  their  scurrility  at  him,  and  the  story  of  his  life  will 
prove  an  inspiration  to  millions  of  Americans  in  the  generations  yet  to  come. 
[Applause.] 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  could  speak  at  great  length  of  the  abusive  attacks  that  have 
appeared  in  the  newspapers  and  the  magazines  of  this  country  against  Grant, 
and  Garfleld,  and  Cleveland,  and  McKinley,  aye,  and  against  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. They  had  their  detractors,  their  defamers.  But  their  fame  rests  secure 
In  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen.  And  while  they  all  undoubtedly  felt  the 
injustice  of  the  poignant  shafts  of  abuse  that  were  hurled  against  them  by  the 
muck-rakers  of  their  respective  periods,  who  to-day  cares  or  even  halfway 
remembers  what  was  the  nature  or  the  character  of  the  malicious  onslaughts? 

And  so,  my  colleagues,  we,  too,  can  draw  this  moral  from  the  lessons  taught 
us  by  that  fact :  "  To-day's  newspapers  are  lost  in  starting  to-morrow's  fires." 
[Applause.] 

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